We'll spare you the obvious cheap jokes, but grabbing hold of NTT DoCoMo's Touch Wood concepts at CEATEC was a true, honest-to-goodness pleasure. Engineered in cooperation with Sharp and Olympus, the kidney bean-esque touchscreen phone was accompanied by a TV tuning smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Both units were in the early prototype stage, with the bean shaped fellow being a mere mock-up that failed to do anything when pressed. The other guy is based around the SH-04A, and while the wood trim could've certainly encompassed more of the chassis than it did, we dig the direction DoCoMo is headed here. Have a look at Ma Earth's favorite phone (next to the Reclaim, of course) in the gallery below (and video after the break, if you're feeling extra saucy).

Being a Japanese carrier and all, it's no shock to see KDDI with a large presence at CEATEC. What was surprising, however, was the cute little device you see pictured above. Showcased in an "early prototype" form, the recently introduced Polaris Robot looks eerily similar to Sony's befuddling Rolly. Thankfully for KDDI (and all of humanity, really), this creature actually has a purpose. Packed with speakers, an array of wireless sensors and the ability to send video signals to your TV sans cables, the concept docking station is meant to stylishly hold your KDDI handset (lots of 'em will be compatible in due time) and beam a blown-up version of your phone's UI onto your television or LCD monitor. The good news here is that the system actually displays a far more intuitive menu layout on the screen than what's available on your dumbphone, enabling users to flip through schedules, photos, videos and playlists with ease. Technological details -- as well as information surrounding price and release -- were scant, but you can whet your appetite by peeking the video just past the break.

Fujitsu has been wowing us with cellphone concepts for quite some time, but this year's round at CEATEC is undoubtedly a show-stopping bunch. Some of the hottest ideas to come from the outfit's most recent mobile phone design contest were on display here in Japan, and we went end to end capturing the lot. The clear pebble mock-up (shown above) was easily the crown jewel (in our mind, anyway), with a small black blob able to morph into different screens (media panels, a keypad, web browser, etc.) depending on which corner you drag said blob into. There was also a design reminiscent of paper mache, not to mention one with a circular vibe that just has to be a long lost cousin to Motorola's AURA. Have a gander at the masterpieces in the gallery below, but don't bet on these hitting your favorite carrier anytime soon.

HTC and Motorola may have done their best to whip Android's interface into shape, but it looks like the folks at Larva Labs still weren't satisfied with the options available, so they've naturally gone ahead and designed their own UI (with a little help from Ideas on Purpose). While it's unfortunately still just a concept, the firm's so-called "Intelligent Home Screen" does bring plenty of interesting ideas to the table, which Larva Labs says should help it "appeal to Blackberry owners and people struggling with information overload." The centerpiece of the concept is a home screen divided by a (slightly familiar looking) slider bar, which puts personal items like emails up top and general interest stuff on the bottom, with relevant apps accessed by the icon on the right-hand side of the screen, and everything else relegated to a separate menu. Hit up the read link below to check it out in action.

Yeah, we can probably safely leave this one in the file we found it in: you know, the one marked "never going to happen." Regardless, when we spied this little dude on Unwired View, we thought we'd pass along the weirdness. Unearthed in a Sony Ericsson patent application mysteriously dubbed "Mobile Terminal," what we have here is a bracelet mobile phone concept, sort of reminiscent of LG's infamous GD910 watch phone. This one's got some added fun in the form of keys on the side of the wristband for a fuller typing experience. Like we said, it's never going to happen, but that won't really stop us from hoping.

If you don't like the way phones look these days, why don't you get off your lazy behind and do something about it? LG's inviting you to do exactly that -- and what's more, there are 43 awards of various levels of awesomeness just waiting to be given away ranging from $1,000 (plus an LG phone, presumably not of your own design) all the way up to 20 grand. The Autodesk-sponsored competition claims that it'll be totally agnostic to the kinds of entries submitted -- whether they be sketches, renders, or computer-aided drafts -- instead concentrating on factors like market potential, creativity, polish and appeal, and our favorite, feasibility. Get those creative juices flowing, though, because the contest wraps up on June 8th.

[Thanks, Zach]

Not sure if you heard, but Sierra Wireless and Wavecom recently changed their respective Facebook statuses from "It's complicated" to "Married." Crazy, right? Here in Las Vegas, the two will be on hand to showcase their first product created in collaboration: the EVDO Fastrack Extreme concept. Said device will reportedly be streaming video of the CTIA show floor via an integrated Sierra Wireless MC5727 PCI Express Mini Card. We're told that the device is aimed for use in a broad range of applications, including everything from video surveillance security systems, multimedia kiosks, navigation database synchronization and broadcast feeds. Sadly, neither company decided to dish out an image, but there's a decent chance we'll see it slinging video around the CTIA floor.

None of these look particularly easy to use, but ZTE showed off some wild concept devices at Mobile World Congress this year. There were a couple of wristwatches in the mix that unbuckled to become USB modems, but our favorite has to be the "Xer," a handheld "inspired by family theater." It's not clear how you'd hold it effectively if you wanted to type on the QWERTY keyboard, but we suppose that's what makes it a concept instead of a production device. Also shown was the "Pure," featuring a "globoid keypad design" that looks only marginally more usable than the Xer -- or, as ZTE puts it, a "novel key-pressing experience." Click on for the full gallery.

As much as we adore this concept, we're not even remotely hopeful something like this will become a reality within the next score or so. That said, we'd love to be proven wrong, as the Conduit is quite possibly the most fantastic phone design to ever be conceived. With a hint of steampunk, a dash of Star Trek and a splash of ergonomic appreciation, this here mobile can be collapsed into a pocket-friendly form or expanded into a bona fide video phone. Hit up the read link for a few more looks, and feel free to give these designers a chunk of capital to make our dreams come true.

[Via kanYeWestBlog]

Pantech has a rich and storied history of showing off concept handsets from time to time, many of which don't look totally unreasonable for production. The latest batch, produced in cooperation with the company's 20-strong team of college design students, includes three totally reasonable phones that we'd like (nay, expect) to see serving SKT and KTF customers in the not-too-distant future, and one totally off-the-wall oddball -- aptly named "Softy Lofty" -- that was clearly mocked up while its designer was involved with some illicit substances. At any rate, we'll take all four with a helping of global LTE, please. [Warning: subscription required]

[Via Unwired View]

Zinc Chan, a London-based designer, just struck fame with his Icono concept telephone with the speed of back-tax owing Ohio plumber. The design is inspired by the internationally recognized "call me" hand gesture made famous by pouty-mouthed debutantes and hollywood starlets -- aka Shaka, amongst surfers. As such, the microphone and speaker are split to ride the swell of the pinkie and thumb, respectively. Callers then draw a unique pattern on the touchscreen pre-assigned to their contacts to initiate a call. As far fetched as the concept may seem, work related to induction charging, body area networks for transmitting audio across human skin, round LCDs, and any number of short length wireless solutions could very well make this concept a near-term reality. One more pic after the break.

[Via Textually and Core77]

Oh sure, LG has teased us with a faux wood cellphone, and Hulger has actually produced one that four people in existence can afford, but this... this is something else. According to the captions in textlad's Flickr pool, Nokia's own eco-team designed and created the object of desire that you see above: an 8-megapixel "handset" that appears to function just fine. We can already tell you this thing isn't coming to market, but we would absolutely love to be proven wrong.

[Via TreeHugger, thanks shellshock]